Burqa

• 1. Introduction

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  In 2017 the Austrian parliament adopted a ban on face-covering clothing in public spaces, and Islamic garments such as the burqa were among its targets. The law came into force on the 1st of October 2017 and carried a fine of 150 euros. Reports at the time put the number of women in Austria who wear a burqa at about 150.

  The burqa, also known as harabah, is an enveloping outer garment worn by some Muslim women. It fully covers the body and the face.

  That gap between a handful of wearers and a national law runs through this whole subject. A cloth that hides a face can signal piety to one person, compulsion to another and a security risk to a legislator. So where did the practice begin, given that written sources show veiled faces long before Islam? What do the Quran, the hadith and centuries of jurists actually say about it? And why have lawmakers from Chad to Switzerland turned to this one garment?

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• 2. Veils Before Islam

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  The Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the 1st century AD, mentioned some Persian women who veiled their faces. Early in the 3rd century the Christian writer Tertullian went further in his treatise The Veiling of Virgins. He described "pagan" women of "Arabia" who wore a veil covering not only the head but the entire face. Clement of Alexandria, another Christian writer, commended the face coverings of his own day.

  Genesis 24:65 and Genesis 38:14 each mention a woman using a covering veil. One is Rebecca, a daughter-in-law of Abraham. The other is Tamar, a daughter-in-law of Judah. The text says that when Judah saw Tamar, "he thought her to be a harlot; because she had covered her face". That line points to a customary, if not sacred, use of the face veil, one that drew attention to sexuality instead of hiding it. Taken together, these sources place veiled faces in Persia, Egypt, Arabia and ancient Israel long before Islam.

  The Byzantine Empire complicates the picture. The face veil was originally part of women's dress among certain classes there. Yet Byzantine art from before Islam commonly shows women with veiled heads or covered hair, and it does not show veiled faces.

  In Egypt, Coptic women historically covered both head and face in public and in the presence of men. During the 19th century, upper-class urban women, Christian and Muslim alike, wore a burqa-type garment there that Egyptians called harabah. The word comes from early Christian and Judaic religious vocabulary, which may hint at where the garment itself began. Coptic Orthodox women wore dark, full garments with a veil, white for the unmarried and black for the married.

  The Quran's own wording on dress, with its mentions of khumur and jalabib, would become the ground on which later arguments were fought.

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• 3. Texts and Interpreters

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  Verse 24:31 of the Quran comes right after a verse telling men to lower their gaze and guard their modesty. It then tells believing women to do the same. They are not to display their charms "except what is apparent outwardly", and they are to cover their bosoms with their veils, called khumur. Classical commentators split over those words. Some said the exception meant the face and hands, which therefore need not be covered. Others disagreed.

  Verse 33:59 is known as the mantle verse. It tells the Prophet's wives, daughters and the women of the faithful to draw their wraps, called jalabib, over them. The verse adds: "They will thus be recognized and no harm will come to them." Reading it alongside early Islamic literature, scholars generally understand it as protection against a hostile faction. That group had molested women on the streets of Medina, claiming they had mistaken them for slave girls. A sahih hadith, an authentic tradition, links the verse's revelation to Umar ibn al-Khattab taunting one of Muhammad's wives as she walked. What a khimar or a jilbab actually was remains debated by traditional and modern scholars alike.

  Scholars who deny that face veiling is obligatory also cite a narration in the collection of Abu Dawud, Book 32, Number 4092. In it Muhammad tells Asma', the daughter of Abu Bakr, that once a woman reaches the age of menstruation she should not display her body except "this and this", pointing to her face and hands. Yusuf al-Qaradawi notes that traditional hadith scholars did not accept the narration as proof on its own, because its chain of transmission left them uncertain. Those who reject mandatory face veiling use it as supporting evidence next to records of customary practice in the time of Muhammad and his companions.

  Early Islamic jurists who discussed veiling outside the context of prayer treated it as a matter of social status and physical safety. Medieval jurists turned instead to awra, the parts of the body that should not be shown. The majority opinion, predominant among Maliki and Hanafi jurists, held that women in public should cover everything except their faces. Most medieval Hanbali and Shafi'i jurists counted the face as awra and concluded it should be veiled, except for the eyes. The Hanbali jurist Ibn Taymiyyah, who died in 1328, was an influential voice for that stricter view. The Hanafi scholar Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani, who died in 1197, stressed that a woman should leave her face and hands uncovered in everyday business dealings with men. Opinion also varied inside the schools, and Qaradawi quotes Shafi'i and Hanbali jurists who said covering the face is not obligatory. In the Shi'a Ja'fari school it is not obligatory either.

  A minority of scholars in Islamic jurisprudence do consider the burqa obligatory when a woman is in the presence of non-mahram men, meaning men outside her husband and close family. Their reasoning is that men must lower their gaze, and covering helps prevent them from looking. The Salafi view is the firmest. It holds that covering the entire body in public is fard, or obligatory, though some interpretations excuse veiling before blind men. Most scholars today, and historically, reject the idea that face veiling is a religious requirement.

  Even inside the Salafi camp the question stayed live. Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani wrote a book arguing that the face veil is not binding on Muslim women, while he taught at the Islamic University of Madinah. His opponents within the Saudi establishment made sure his contract with the university lapsed without renewal.

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• 4. Cloth, Color and Choice

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  A full Afghan chadaree covers the wearer's whole face except a small area around the eyes, which sits behind a concealing net or grille. Its color depends on place. Around Kabul it is usually light blue, in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north it is white, and in Kandahar in the south it is brown and green.

  Before the Taliban took power, the chadaree was rarely worn in cities, especially Kabul. While they ruled, they required it in public. Use elsewhere in the country has varied. In Kabul it was observed to be declining until the city fell to the Taliban on the 15th of August 2021. Khalid Hanafi has said that political instability pushes some women who might not otherwise wear a chadaree to do so for their own safety.

  After retaking Afghanistan, the Taliban first declared that women could return to work but must always wear the hijab outside the house. They said the chadaree was not mandatory. In May 2022 they issued a decree that all women in public must wear a chadaree.

  In India, Muslims made up about 14.2 percent of the population at the 2011 census, and the burqa was once common in places such as Old Delhi. A local informant in Nizamuddin Basti described a rule that depends on age. Young unmarried women, and young women in the first years of marriage, are required to wear it. After that the husband usually decides whether his wife continues. The Indian burqa is a slim black cloak, quite different from the Afghan style.

  Similar garments carry other names. In Central Asia the equivalent is called the paranja. The Arab version of the burqa is called the boshiya and is usually black.

  Motives differ from wearer to wearer. Some women describe the garment as a symbol of modesty, piety and cultural identity. Others choose it as an expression of personal or religious commitment, or of political views.

  The garment has also appeared outside Islam. A group of Haredi Jewish women in Israel began to wear it as a symbol of piety after Bruria Keren adopted it. Keren was a religious leader who taught a strict interpretation of Jewish scripture to female followers, and an estimated 600 women took up the veil. She said she wore it to "save men from themselves". In her view a man who sees a woman's body parts is aroused and might commit sin. A rabbinical authority answered that exaggeration risked the opposite result. He issued an edict calling burqa-wearing a sexual fetish, as promiscuous as wearing too little.

  In 2010 Marina Solodkin, a member of the Knesset, intended to put forward a bill to prohibit full-body and face coverings for women. According to The Jerusalem Post, the bill would not have differentiated between Muslims and Jews.

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• 5. Bans After Attacks

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  In July 2015 two female suicide bombers wearing burqas detonated themselves in Fotokol, Cameroon, killing 13 people. Cameroon's Far North Region banned Islamic face veils, including the burqa, and the ban now operates in five of the country's ten regions.

  Chad acted in June 2015. Veiled Boko Haram members disguised as women had carried out multiple suicide bombings in N'Djamena, and the full face veil was banned afterward. The Republic of the Congo banned the face veil in May 2015, citing security. The decision was announced by El Hadji Djibril Bopaka, president of the country's Islamic High Council. He said that "some non-Muslims have been using the full veil to hide and to carry out uncivic acts".

  Gabon banned the face veil in public and in places of work in 2015. Authorities said the move was meant to "prevent the risk of suicide attack".

  Morocco took a different route and went after the trade in the garment itself. On the 9th of January 2017 the government distributed letters to businesses declaring a ban on the sale, production and importation of burqas. The letters said businesses were expected to clear their stock within 48 hours.

  In April 2019 Sri Lanka banned face-covering clothing in the aftermath of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings by jihadists.

  Not every ban followed an attack. In 2017 China banned the burqa in the Muslim area of Xinjiang. That same year Tajikistan passed a law requiring people to "stick to traditional national clothes and culture". It has been widely seen as an attempt to stop women wearing Islamic clothing, in particular a headscarf wrapped under the chin, as opposed to the traditional Tajik scarf tied behind the head.

  Syria, a Ba'athist state that discouraged the hijab, went the secular route. Ghiyath Barakat, its minister of higher education, announced that students, teachers and staff would be barred from covering their faces at universities. He said the veils ran counter to the "secular and academic principles of the country".

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• 6. The French Law

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  French public schools have not allowed the burqa since 2004. The state judged it a religious symbol, comparable to the Christian cross, and applied an established law of 1905 that prohibits students and staff from wearing clearly visible religious symbols. That law dates from the time when the secular state took over most schools from the Catholic Church. It does not apply to private or religious schools.

  On the 22nd of June 2009 the then-president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that burqas were "not welcome" in France. He objected to women being "prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity".

  The French National Assembly appointed 32 lawmakers from right- and left-wing parties to a six-month fact-finding mission on restricting the garment. On the 26th of January 2010 the commission reported that access to public services and public transport should be barred to anyone wearing the burqa. The Assembly overwhelmingly approved a ban on burqas and niqabs on the 13th of July 2010. The Senate overwhelmingly approved a ban on the 14th of September 2010, and the law took effect on the 11th of April 2011.

  The measure is officially called "The bill to forbid concealing one's face in public". Officials stress that it refers neither to Islam nor to veils, and that it applies to everyone, not just Muslims. They point to exceptions for motorcycle helmets, masks for health reasons, fencing, skiing and carnivals. When the measure went to parliament in May, its text said the practice, even if voluntary, "cannot be tolerated in any public place".

  In 2014 the European Court of Human Rights upheld the French ban. It accepted the French government's argument that the law rested on "a certain idea of living together".

  The logic of neutrality reached the swimming pool later. In 2022 France's top administrative court ruled against allowing body-covering burkini swimwear in public pools for religious reasons. It argued that this would violate the principle of government neutrality toward religion.

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• 7. Across Europe

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  On the 29th of April 2010 the lower house of Belgium's parliament passed a bill banning clothing that obscures the wearer's identity in places like parks and in the street. It passed without dissent, and the Senate approved it too. BBC News estimated that only around 30 women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of around half a million. The ban took effect in July 2011. On the 11th of July 2017 the European Court of Human Rights upheld it, after two Muslim women challenged it as an infringement of their rights.

  The Netherlands needed several attempts. On the 27th of January 2012 the Dutch cabinet agreed a bill with fines of up to 380 euros for wearing a burqa in public, but it did not pass in Parliament. In October 2012 a succeeding cabinet narrowed it to public transport, health care, education and government buildings. A cabinet bill of the 22nd of May 2015 also failed, though a new proposal in November 2015 eventually became law. A partial ban was enacted on the 26th of June 2018, and a national ban began on the 1st of August 2019. By one estimate, 200-400 Dutch women wear a burqa or niqab.

  Denmark announced a full ban on niqabs and burqas on the 31st of May 2018. It came into force on the 1st of August 2018 with a fine of 1000 DKK, then about 134 euros, and up to 10,000 DKK for repeat offenses. The law covers every garment that masks the face, including fake beards and balaclavas. Supporters said it would help integration, while Amnesty International said it violated women's rights. On the day it took effect, 300-400 people protested in Copenhagen's Nørrebro district, some wearing party masks.

  Bulgaria's parliament outlawed clothing that partially or completely covers the face in places such as government offices and educational institutions from the 30th of September 2016. Violators face a fine of up to 1,500 levs, about US$860. Muslims make up 15 percent of Bulgaria's population of 7.1 million. In June 2018 Norway's parliament banned face-covering clothing at educational institutions and daycare centres, for pupils and staff alike.

  In Germany, Angela Merkel said in a 2016 speech that she wanted the burqa banned "wherever legally possible". That was seen as backing Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière's earlier proposal on full-face veils in public buildings. In 2017 parliament approved a ban on face coverings for soldiers and state workers on duty, and car and truck drivers were covered too. Bavaria followed in July 2017 for teachers, state workers and students. Lower Saxony banned the burqa in public schools in August 2017, prompted by a Muslim pupil in Osnabrück who wore it for years and refused to remove it. Baden-Württemberg extended its school ban to pupils in July 2020.

  Italy has had an anti-terrorism law since 1975 that forbids any dress hiding a person's face, passed when the country faced domestic terrorism unrelated to Islam. In May 2010 a Tunisian woman was reported fined 500 euros under it. In October 2025 the Italian government proposed a bill to forbid Islamic face covering, and that same month Portugal's parliament passed a bill banning clothing that covers the face.

  Some reports ran ahead of the law. In 2016 foreign media wrongly claimed that Latvia's parliament had adopted a ban. Latvia's government approved draft legislation on the 22nd of August 2017, but parliament never adopted it. Malta restricts no Islamic garments, though all face covering is illegal there and women must remove the veil when legally required.

  Sweden's bans came at the local level. In December 2019 the municipality of Skurup banned Islamic veils in educational institutions, after Staffanstorp approved a similar rule. Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court overturned the ban in December 2022 as a violation of religious freedoms. A 2012 Uppsala University poll found that 85 percent of Swedes called the burqa completely or fairly unacceptable, and 81 percent said the same of the niqab.

  Switzerland voted instead. In Ticino, a citizen initiative produced a referendum in which 65 percent backed a ban, and it took effect in July 2016 with fines of up to CHF 10,000. In September 2018 the canton of St. Gallen approved one with a 67 percent vote. The Islamic Central Council, Switzerland's largest Islamic community organisation, recommended that Muslim women keep covering their faces. On the 7th of March 2021 the whole country voted on a prohibition proposed by a right-wing group affiliated with the Swiss People's Party. Turnout was 51.4 percent, and 51.2 percent of voters agreed, even though very few women in Switzerland wear a burqa or niqab.

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• 8. Parliaments and Provocations

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  In 2006 Jack Straw, then the Labour MP for Blackburn, asked Muslim women in his constituency to remove face veils during face-to-face surgeries. He told the media that a female staffer would stay in the room. Public reaction varied. Some Muslim groups said they understood his concerns, while others rejected the request as prejudicial to Muslim women.

  A poll in 2011 indicated that 66 percent of British people supported banning the burqa in all public places. The Conservative government nonetheless ruled a ban out, and in 2018 Theresa May said: "we do not support a ban on the wearing of the veil in public".

  That same year Boris Johnson described women who wear the burqa as looking "like letterboxes". Politicians across the spectrum condemned the remark, including May, Dominic Grieve and Baroness Warsi, and Labour MPs Jess Phillips, David Lammy and Stella Creasy. In the week afterward, Islamophobic incidents were reported to have risen by 375 percent. In 2025 the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin used Prime Minister's Questions to call on Keir Starmer to ban the burka.

  Australia's debate has been loud, though no ban has gone ahead. In 2010 Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi called for one, branding the burqa "un-Australian". In 2011 Carnita Matthews of Sydney was sentenced to six months in jail for a statement accusing a police officer of trying to forcibly lift her niqab. News sources initially misreported the garment as a burqa. Judge Clive Jeffreys overturned the conviction in June 2011, citing differences between the signature on her licence and the one on the complaint.

  On the 4th of July 2011 New South Wales became the first Australian state to let police demand that burqas, and other headgear such as motorcycle helmets, be removed when asking for identification. In October 2014 the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate decreed that female visitors with a face covering must sit in the glassed-in areas of the Canberra public gallery normally used by schoolchildren. It was a response to a planned disruptive action by a political activist group. Prime Minister Tony Abbott opposed the restriction, and it was later reversed.

  On the 17th of August 2017 Senator Pauline Hanson walked into the Senate wearing a burqa. She claimed it "oppresses women", and she was protesting after being refused permission to introduce a bill banning the burqa and face coverings. Attorney-General George Brandis then gave what was described as an emotional speech. He said: "To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do." Labor and Greens senators gave him a standing ovation. Afterward ReachTEL polled 2,832 Australians and found that 56.3 percent supported banning the burqa in public places.

  Hanson wore a burqa into the Senate chamber a second time on the 24th of November 2025, again calling for a ban. This time all the other parties condemned her.

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